


Physics and Penguins

by RiseHigh



Series: The Reluctant Housemates [2]
Category: Class (TV 2016)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Matteusz Andrzejewski (Mentioned), Penguins, Physics, Reluctant Housemates, Snark, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 08:25:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8438434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiseHigh/pseuds/RiseHigh
Summary: Just another school night with Charlie and Quill, so homework, snark, and reluctant bonding.  Set after 'For Tonight We Might Die' but before 'Nightvisiting'.





	

**Author's Note:**

> FYI: Edited this a tad bit in light of what we learned of Quill culture in 1x07

“Please tell me you are not still doing homework.”

Charlie glanced up as Quill strode into the kitchen with a bag of groceries. “Only physics left.”

She smirked and set the bag on the counter. After taking out the bread and some bananas, she pulled a bag of coffee out and opened it to inhale the scent. This was the one thing humans got right. Setting it aside, she filled the kettle with water and went back to putting the groceries away.

“I was gone over an hour you know,” she said once she was done with the groceries.

“Is that a complaint or an observation?

“Both.” She scooped coffee grounds into her French press and then added the boiling water from the kettle before continuing, “You haven’t moved since I left.”

“I had supper.”

Quill glanced at the dirty pot on the stove. “I can see that.”

“I’ll get it later.”

“Yes, and maybe this time you’ll wash it instead of just leaving it in the sink, hmm?”

“I told you I was sorry about that.”

The _that_ had been their first full day on Earth when she opened a can of something carbonated and it fizzed all over the countertop. He had laughed while she cursed the ridiculous planet, which devolved into the two of them arguing. It culminated with him telling her to ‘stop complaining and clean the kitchen’ as a he walked out. So she did—that day, the next day—for three weeks until he finally told her that she ‘didn’t have to’ whilst she was clearing his cereal bowl from the table one Saturday morning. At which point, she sarcastically thanked him for releasing her from the order, which clued him in. The prince claimed not to have realized and promptly apologized. It had been more maddening that he had been utterly unaware.

“Whatever,” she said dismissively.

She probably should stop dragging that up every time he didn’t clean up quickly enough. Yet it felt so good to make him squirm, so she glared at him until he went back to work while she waited for her coffee to finish brewing. After a couple minutes, she slowly depressed the plunger and carried the French press along with her coffee mug over to the coffee table in the lounge. She backtracked to the kitchen to grab her folder off the table and paused to look at Charlie.

“That shouldn’t be taking you this long,” she said with a judgmental wave of her hand. “Did those tutors of yours teach you anything?”

“The problem isn’t content, but the quantity.”

“Poor baby.” She sat down on the sofa and opened the folder to pull out a stack of homework from that day. “You should try having to mark them.”

“You’re the one who assigned it.”

“These human teenagers are lazy enough as it is.” Quill turned on the television as she continued, “I’m not going to indulge them further.”

“Do you have to watch that now?”

She flicked through a few channels before settling on one. “You don’t expect me to mark these in silence, do you?”

“You’re working.”

“It is tedious and dull,” she said as she pulled out her red pen. “Besides, you shouldn’t need silence to complete the assignment. It’s rudimentary physics.”

“Yes, but I learned these equations with the correct theorem. This is antiquated and wrong.”

“All you have to do is apply the antiquated theorem to the numbers,” she explained slowly. “If you paid more attention in class...”

“You don’t teach,” he complained. His gaze drifted to the television screen. “And you’re paying more attention to that...that...what are you watching?”

“Nature documentary on emperor penguins.”

“You’re paying more attention to that nature documentary, than the papers you’re marking.”

“Multitasking.” She slashed her pen across the paper in her lap. “See, I’m deducting points from your moronic boyfriend’s homework as we speak.”

“Matteusz is not moronic.”

“He’s terrible at physics. Maybe if you actually studied when he came over...”

Charlie cut her off. “What Matteusz and I do is none of your business.”

“Please. As if I care what you get up to with your human,” she said with thinly veiled disgust. “These penguins are more interesting than the two of you.”

Charlie started working again, but after a moment looked over at the screen to see the penguins sliding on their stomachs down a slope of ice. “What are they doing now?”

“I’m not going to repeat the narrator’s dialogue back at you like a parrot,” she told him; absently wondering whether he knew what a parrot was. “If you’re curious, bring your work in here and watch yourself.”

He considered her suggestion and then picked up his book to join her on the sofa. They worked in silence—correction, she worked in silence. Charlie would mutter a quiet ‘oh’ or ‘hmm’ when something about the penguins interested him.

“The mothers just leave them?” he asked in surprise as the group of females shuffled off. “And then the males take care of the eggs?”

“Apparently.”

“That seems odd.”

“Not to me.”

She watched out of the corner of her eye as the realization that hit him. Quill mothers gave birth to their litters and died. Apparently, the royal tutors had taught the prince something about the Quill culture beyond them being ruthless and uncivilized.

“Oh, right. I forgot.”

Quill he braced herself further comment on Quill traditions and childbirth—the judgmental comments Rhodians always made about her peoples' _contemptible_ ways—but none came. Quill felt his eyes on her, so she turned her head to look at him. It wasn’t a look of thanks (there was no reason to thank him for refraining from insulting her), but she silently acknowledged what he said (and refrained from saying). Her eyes flicked down to the page of his assignment.

“You have number three wrong.”

Charlie studied it for a moment. “No it’s not.”

“We’re living on twenty-first century Earth.”

“Right.” He started erasing the work he had done. “Thanks.”

She went back to her own papers. “Yeah, sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> I just like the idea of Charlie and Miss Quill reluctantly having to hang out on weeknights and mocking antiquated Earth physics, okay? The animal documentary was prompted by Miss Quill's chameleon knowledge and the fact that I can just see her being fascinated by studying other creatures.


End file.
